Truth or Death
by Skye-lark08
Summary: When the lines are drawn by the Witch Counsel their say is law anything beyond that is betrayal. Miranda is a strict follower of that until she meets Alexander Weatere a Triste who defines his own rules and could hurt her more than any leech ever could...
1. CinderSoot

The ball was hosted by no other than Siete and the host wasn't the only one to be terrified of, the guests were to die for. Only the elite and best were invited and jealousy might get them killed in the mean time.  
  
She knew the danger but she could feel the truth seething up threw her fingertips and she wanted to grab the chance to know. She wanted to know was history repeating itself. Was Theo a vampire embodying a witch and if so Salvatore was a trader and Theo was a leech.  
  
For the moment her brash thoughts pulled at her because Theo had scratched her surface. Had gotten under her skin for her to care and she despised the feeling.  
  
It wasn't hard to find something to wear, the Triste undercover witches had basically anything you could desire. She found a red ball gown with a mask as easy as anything else. Applying makeup, while piling her hair on top of her head was a little harder but she managed.  
  
She shifted into the ballroom with ease and sought out her answer.  
  
MPOV  
  
The bodies swirled in all their finery as I searched for the one person who I knew was there. The one person who had the answers, and all the secrets I needed to know about the Triste line, about the deaths the killings. I needed to know why I was still here. I joined the dance only to be swept up by my masked secret keeper his presence was more than enough identity.  
  
"Why are you here?" he asked turning in a rather fast swirl where my feet seemed to leave the ground.  
  
"To find you," I answered straight forward.  
  
He looked at me eyes watching threatening to swallow me whole, their black depths the answer to my question. He was a vampire, those coal caves spoke the truth quite clearly.  
  
"It's true then," I said sickened.  
  
He looked away no longer keeping my gaze.  
  
"Who told you?" he said dipping me in accord to the rest of the dancers.  
  
"I want to see them," I commanded not convinced that any vampire could show as much compassion as Theo could without slitting throats.  
  
He looked amused as only a vampire would. I stepped on his foot and he looked down trapping me in his eyes. I couldn't feel my feet touch the ground nor my breath as it caught in my throat.  
  
"What more proof must you have," he said coldly as if I sickened him.  
  
I hated him for lying to me; but I hated him most for what he was. The song slowed deliberately and he held my waist my hand clasped in his gloved hand.  
  
"Are you afraid I'll bite you Deliria," he whispered in my ear, "are you afraid I'll show you the darker side of your black and white world."  
  
I felt my hand crushed in his fist, a slight shiver running loose.  
  
"Do you want to kill me?" He asked maliciously fierce, his aura curling in smooth coils round me like a snake  
  
How could he be so cruel from what I knew as the kind, strong, Theo? Who was now torturing me with words that threatened a fight, a deathly fight?  
  
He exposed his fangs and pulled me ever closer, touching those serrated canines to my veins.  
  
"Now are you afraid Deliria, are you afraid of your nightmares coming true, are you afraid that your clan is not as grand as you've built it in to being."  
  
He was cold, disgusted with me, he was angry, and venomous sorrow poured out, worst of all he was hungry, and I could feel the hunger wanting to take a bite.  
  
"What are you doing?" I whined drowsily as he undid the mask letting it fall away as midnight struck.  
  
I wanted to rest my head upon his shoulder, but his eyes commanded my attention.  
  
"Theo," I pleaded as forcefully as I could, "why didn't you tell me; how could you keep such a secret?"  
  
"Ssshhh," he said breath warm against my temples, "you always want to argue with me."  
  
He had a clamp on my mental strengths.  
  
"You are in predator territory now Deliria and no one can help you."  
  
I yanked my arm releasing my hand from his side, while in the bit of a stupor, to flee. He moved quickly as if grace and stealth drove his very being and twirled me into him as he grabbed my hand once more putting it behind his arm.  
  
"Theo stop we both no what will happen now that the clock strikes twelve."  
  
"Stay awhile CinderSoot you may like life outside the glass."  
  
"Doesn't mean I'll like it in the grave."  
  
"Then we'll dance upon our coffins till hunters break our backs."  
  
"I'll break something that's damn straight."  
  
"My heart at best Deliria darling."  
  
His hair tickled my chin and I turned away seeing my flaw of exposing my throat and he saw it as well. If I'd screamed he'd only make it hurt as he closed in for the kill his jaws stopped.  
  
I felt his mouth on mine as he'd broken the skin of my lip and not my veins I held him there for hoping he would let up enough for my to disappear. He held me there though his hand clamped on my neck as he held me in place kissing me with fierceness I didn't know he had.  
  
"Theo," the cunning voice split the air like an electric saw and he let go his eyes not looking so cloudy regaining a bit of control but he had my blood rolling around in his mouth like a fine wine, that I could tell. He only let me go enough to where his right arm entwined with mine as if we were an old fashioned couple strolling around saying casual hello's.  
  
"Introduce me to your..." he paused sizing me up.  
  
My shields went up and I answered.  
  
"Miranda."  
  
Theo nodded, "This is the one you've been spying me with."  
  
She couldn't help but blush at that. "We were just..."  
  
Theo pulled my mind like a hard clamp and dizziness took hold and I stayed still saying nothing as he finished.  
  
"Lovers never kiss and tell, Jaguar you know that."  
  
Fala was floating around like a cloud in all her glory and Jaguar did know and he didn't tell. He smiled wryly at that and said, "I suppose I should not pry with you Theo your not usually in such moods." "Well nice to meet you Miranda I suppose I may be seeing you more often," he nodded walking off in the direction of Fala.  
  
Theo pulled me in front of him and walked his knees jabbing my thighs.  
  
He pulled me into the hall and then into a corner room, "Damn it, Deliria, you're a Triste so start acting like it. If you're going to try and kill me do it. If you're going to expose me don't boast to me about it. There's no sense in trying to cover-up this bullshit with you.  
  
"There's no secret as far as my naivety goes for the moment. I know no vampire personally and I most certainly don't know any by the same name as you, Theo."  
  
He rolled his eyes back in his head and rubbed his hand over his forehead smoothing out what he thought were soon to be stress lines.  
  
"Do I have your word Triste?"  
  
I didn't like his reference but it didn't matter after this I was going to space myself as far away as humanly possible from here, from him, after tonight and then at least I could tell the truth. At least partly, anyway.  
  
"You have my word," I said whisper light so no one could hear but him.  
  
He swore into a couch cushion and his hair started to come out of its pinned back style.  
  
"Pardon my short visit your Triste must go," I snarled.  
  
"Del, he said, "come on don't be like that."  
  
"You were going to bite me Theo."  
  
"I thought you were going to knife me."  
  
"I just wanted the truth," I said coldly.  
  
"And I wanted a feed," he said as if bitter over the loss.  
  
"You know I may not have a glass slipper but I do have spiky heels."  
  
She hurled the knife like ends at his face. And he caught one as another got him across the cheek.  
  
"Score one for the girl in rags," I taunted.  
  
He hurtled toward me madder than ever.  
  
"Let's have it then who will win this reality story Beauty or the Beast."  
  
I spun my blade across his chest and blood spattered the blue silk as he retaliated crushing a fist into my collarbone.  
  
I flailed backward colliding with a coffee table built with a crystal center. It broke into splinters and the tiny razorblades of glass etched in my silk covered back.  
  
He held his chest the silver stinging his flesh and I wanted to scream from the sharp needles embedded deep in my skin, but I was silent not giving up dignity as well as pride.  
  
"You, it was you all the time wasn't it, the killings they've been you" I hissed.  
  
"Unfortunately, no," he spat unleashing a tendril power in my direction.  
  
I leaped away and it split the Victorian love seat in two where my skull had been meant to take such wrath.  
  
I hurled my power at him and he whirled backward hitting the wall hard the plaster giving off a slight mist from the impressed body in its depth. I wasn't going to give him an edge I pitched forward grabbing his throat my knife in my hand I drew it up to slit the pale skin.  
  
I didn't expect it as a silent scream escaped my lips his knee dug into my side the pressure knocking the breath from me, and pinning me between the floor and his calf.  
  
I pushed my power into him as a last resort before death, with what little concentration I could muster. His body went straight up into the air like a bullet, his head and spine colliding with the ceiling.  
  
A snarling gasp split his cement frown.  
  
I rolled away from him as he hit the rouge fiber originally a pale white and littered with jagged glass.  
  
I crawled across the floor, trying to concentrate long enough to shift somewhere else, anywhere else.  
  
He was quicker though, and angrier by little more than I, gripping my throat in one hand he pulled me off the ground into the air with it, his fingertips just having to pinch a little harder to commit another death. The one I was sure no longer mattered to him, nor I. Mine. 


	2. Introductions

Disclaimer: I do not own Amelia Atwater-Rhodes characters but I do own the ones I created. This story has only just begun and reviews are divinely appreciated.   
  
Alexander wouldn't have noticed her had not he been stalking Jaguar just long enough to spot one of his own, Triste kin. He had his mind made up about Jaguar to stalk him and make a clean sweep of the job. She was Triste though, their lines were dwindling and so he abandoned his mission, extremely annoyed, and searched the rooms.  
  
He opened the last door down the hall and found her suspended in the air by no other than a leech. The leech made a grunt of disgust and tossed her nonchalant across his right shoulder.  
  
Her body collided with the wall to the right of the doorframe I was standing in.  
  
She dropped seemingly lifeless to the ground and as for her attacker shifted away from the situation before I could join the conflict.  
  
I shook her lightly trying to get a response. "I'm Alexander, Triste line to be exact, and I need you to open your eyes."  
  
She batted those lashes revealing disturbing gray eyes with silver flecks. Such strange eyes under those roman like features with such creamy complexioned skin.  
  
Her hair folded over her shoulders as she stood cradling her arm. Brown chocolate on the verge of an almost black the slight curls filled with tiny diamonds and sticky blood.  
  
She let her bad hand fall limp and with the other moved her hair. The diamonds cascaded to the ground like rain. Pointing to the ribbon that crisscrossed across her back with her good hand she asked pained, "Untie it would you?"  
  
I carefully undid the wide piece of silk to reveal her crème skin stuck with jagged glass and pieces of wet silk.  
  
She gasped as I took my fingertips barely brushing over her back to see how bad it really was. It was ghastly; every inch seemed to be embedded with fine crystal up to the neck. The wounds bleed cherry and she replaced her hair as a loose mask around the brutal cuts.  
  
"Thank you," she said absently. What more I could say to her was beyond what further I could do. She was a bit of a mystery so I stood there as she seemed to think on the same exact thing.  
  
MPOV  
  
I really was bewildered on what to do and my body seemed to be going for number one on the not to do list. Sleep.  
  
I shifted to Caryn's house and believe me I would've like to have avoided the embarrassment whole heartedly but these weren't just bumps and bruises that I could hide under a turtleneck and some sweats.  
  
I had trouble keeping consciousness while striding around the living room trying to wake only Caryn.  
  
The steps were more of a problem because every step I took it seemed to pull on the skin across my spine causing spots to come with the jolts.  
  
I was going to fall backwards pretty soon the edges of my vision were starting to blur and I wasn't halfway up the stairs. Damn my pride then.  
  
"Caryn," I called with little more than a whisper. "Caryn Smoke," I panted trying to raise my voice. It was silent as my knees buckled onto a step and I tried again. "Caryn," I yelled and gripped the rail.  
  
The light switched on blinding me as I twisted with the last of my strength so at least I could protect my back as I went down those stairs.  
  
It wasn't long before I was awake again as Caryn moved my hair the strands caught on some of the glass and I moaned woefully.  
  
I was trying to be a big girl about this but it wasn't only the bleeding or the fact I think a few screws had come loose when Theo had rudely plowed his fist into my collarbone or even the mutilation of my arm.  
  
No, Theo had betrayed me.  
  
"Traitorous leech," I said with as much venom as I could.  
  
I was lying on my chest my bad arm twisted entirely the wrong way in more pain than ever and here Caryn just sat inspecting me and looking me over.  
  
"That bad," I said cynically. She opened her eyes wide she looked like a deer, a deer that had seen a pair of headlights belonging to a semi.  
  
I wondered what kind of semi would I be, a little off the subject but before death seemed a better time than any for all those thoughts you were too busy to carry through with before hand. And as for Caryn, she continued to stare deer eyed at me while I seriously considered making like a semi and knocking some sense into that witch.  
  
That was how, I suppose I knew I was going to die because Caryn made no move to try and heal me or move me somewhere so she could get a better position. Instead she just kind of stood there with her deer headed look, gawking at me.  
  
"I can't heal you until all the glass is out," she said softly, "and you may bleed to death before I can get all of it out." She wiped the blood that was beginning to slip into my eye with the frill of her nightgown. "I can't lift you either, I'm afraid I'll drop you and that may be just enough to snap the spine and collarbone."  
  
I talked in whispers my strength was dwindling and I was feeling rather drowsy and very pissed at Caryn although I suppose Theo was really to blame for my disposition.  
  
"So call someone, Vida if you must," I whispered.  
  
"They won't talk to me they won't even pick up the phone when I call. My line, the Smoke line, is the only one that hasn't turned me out." Caryn sobbed.  
  
"Silver, Arun, Light, anyone but Triste," I spouted.  
  
"I don't know their names, I'm sorry, she wept I don't know anyone that could, could...."  
  
"All right I said don't start the waterworks, just let me think. Let me..." the stupor was coming back and a boy with golden eyes looked back at me behind my lids.  
  
"Alexander," it came out in a whisper as Caryn sobbed but I was no longer listening to her. I was trying to call his name but my mouth was no longer working and my lids wouldn't lift.  
  
I don't really know where I am, which scared me more than the beckoning death.  
  
APOV  
  
It was like speeding through traffic, although traffic seemed a little more normal to be speeding by than matter, because suddenly I materialized in Caryn Smoke's living room with little more sense of how I got their to who was lying on the floor.  
  
Caryn was sobbing as I approached she screeched in surprise then got up and took my hand. She placed my palms specifically where I needed to lift her and how and we moved her to the kitchen table.  
  
Disappearing and reappearing with bandages and tweezers she worked swiftly and skillfully.  
  
Her eyes were huge in her head and she was starting to pluck the pieces. It dawned on me who this girl was pretty late but if you had arrived by someone else's will you might have been a little late on introductions as well.  
  
She shoved a pair of the tweezers in my hands and as if on an operating table piece by piece we extracted every sliver long into the night without so much as a grown from our patient. I began to think we were extracting crystal from a corpse.  
  
Caryn did a thorough inspection of the job and finally started to heal the cracks in her collarbone, spine, then her arm and by the time she had healed mostly everything to perfection besides the scratch above her left eye she was pretty tired to say the least.  
  
Caryn collapsed pretty much after that. I dutifully took her upstairs and placed her in her bed opening the shades to let the moon shine in.  
  
I then went back downstairs and raided Caryn's bathroom for a smaller band- aid for the mystery girl's gash and was fortunate to find a Dora band-aid. Smoothing the band-aid above her brow I was about to transport her to the couch when she stirred.  
  
She fell drowsily off the table and I did my best to catch her. Whoever she was just kind of sat there her arm slung around my neck, which I didn't really mind at all considering I didn't usually get to comfort the damsel in distress.  
  
Her head tilted up to me with those glassy eyes that seemed to glow and she tried out my name.  
  
"Alexander?" she asked groggily and I nodded.  
  
"Miranda," she said to me in a whisper and that was all the introduction she needed to enter dreamland from there. 


	3. Hunters seem Alike

Author Notes: I apologize for incorrectly spelling Jager from "In the Forests of the Night." That won't happen again, hopefully. Her names Miranda but why Theo calls her Deliria is coming up in near chapters. Sorry for the bit of confusion.  
  
I wanted to thank DeathGuardian09 for reminding me of certain details. As well as Karrimelle so I can straighten out my mistakes.  
  
Reveiws Are Greatly Appreciated  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own "In the Forest of the Night" or any characters in it  
  
MPOV  
  
I was blissfully dreaming about all those things the myth of Santa Claus was supposed to inspire. I admit I didn't truthfully know what a sugarplum was but if it was a doughy pastry with plenty of plum filling and icing it was there. Dancing blissfully until the gumdrop wanted in on some of the action. I don't know why my stomach was suddenly inspired to make buttery rolls bounce down the stairs, or cinnamon buns stick to the ceiling but if it were heaven I wish I could have stayed there for eternity. (Dance sugarplum, dance.)  
  
When finally bliss was broken by reality and I unwillingly passed through the barrier all I heard was Caryn piping about some ridiculous thing, me. I'll admit it was nice for someone other than my internal instinct for survival to be concerned about my welfare but being noticed made me want to flee.  
  
I cautiously tried to shift but managed to sink halfway through the couch cushions and stop. My powers were drained from so much use and my patience grew thin with being stuck in tacky polyester. I used some of it to get back up but the room was silent.  
  
The Triste witch I had barely managed to meet had hushed Caryn in my waking up.  
  
I poked my head over the couch and nodded. Touching my back lightly I found the wounds had disappeared.  
  
"Morning Miranda," said Alexander.  
  
I moved my arm testing the socket to my satisfaction and smiled.  
  
Getting up off the couch, Caryn snickered. I was still wearing the gown. So I did what I usually did with most clothes I partly ruined.  
  
I tore off most of the dress besides the thick slip underneath. It was actually a white dress that worked quite well as a slip. I tossed the frothy mess in a trashcan, took off the chandelier earrings and set them on the table. I reached for the pink ice diamond and decided to leave the necklace there. The heels I had lost last night were gone no getting those back as I remembered tossing them at Theo quite violently.  
  
With the thought of Theo I staggered backward over her coffee table. Thank the gods it was wood this time and clumsily fell off the back. Alexander got to me and pulled me up.  
  
"If I were you Miranda I would try and avoid end tables from now on," he snickered while Caryn stifled full on laughter.  
  
"If I were you I'd stay away from me," I growled narrowing my eyes to demon slits in hopes he'd get the message.  
  
This would probably be a good time to mention that I wasn't in the best of moods. Salvatore, my mentor, is a question I needed time to think about as to Theo he should have known better and checked my corpse. If I heard him call me by my middle name, Deliria, one more time, I think I will get nauseous, hopefully while he's near by.  
  
Alexander raised one eyebrow at that, "Is that a threat?"  
  
"No," I answered casually, "just good advice."  
  
He smirked, and reminded me of the statue Adonis or a Calvin Klein underwear model. Either way Alexander was pleasing to the eye. And Calvin Klein underwear model Alex was pleasing to my thoughts.  
  
I flinched with the last idea, the mere fact it had even come into my mind was bad, wrong, and left me to wonder where the hell did that come from. I opened the door not to far from where he had been helping me to my feet and turned to walk out.  
  
"Here," he said his keys around his fingers made a jingling sound, "I'll give you a ride."  
  
I nodded, although fleeing would be tons easier with my own car I guess the next available thing would do.  
  
"Caryn," he called, "I'll be back later I really want to try some of those chocolate chip pancakes."  
  
At that my stomach lurched and made me dizzy, but this could not be helped but had to be ignored. It seemed my abdomen hadn't gotten the memo that my mentor may try and come after me as well as his sidekick leech. It rather liked living in the dream world of tasty dinner rolls and gooey cinnamon buns. (I couldn't blame it)  
  
I slid into the leather seats rather surprised at the silver BMW convertible as he slid the top down and with the slickness of a college frat boy revved the engine. Charging the road with the battle like screech of his tires as they burned rubber on the pavement.  
  
As I was looking down at my bare feet he seemed to read my thoughts and said, "Look in the back Miranda, there's probably something there."  
  
Trusting that Alexander had moral fiber and principles I bent between the two seats to look in the back of the car. There they were, ribbon lace up heels the color of ivory, along with a crumpled dress and some personal items.  
  
I sat down and slipped them on lacing them up to my calves and said, "Your girlfriend has good taste do you think she'll mind me borrowing them."  
  
"Who said they're my girlfriends," he said looking o-so-amused.  
  
I was half enticed to throw the damned things out the window, but realizing I would be out another pair of shoes resisted my urge to see them eaten by Alexander's tire tracks. I laced the other one up my calf and feigned a face of indifference.  
  
"So where am I going?" he asked.  
  
"Stop," I said pushing my heeled toe into his foot. The breaks screeched as we did a three sixty and I turned the wheel out of his hands into a parking spot. He looked at me incredulously and put his hand over his heart.  
  
I pulled the keys out of the ignition and swung the ring on my finger.  
  
"Sustenance," I purred and got out of the car and went into the coffee shop.  
  
I don't know what had gotten into me, my stomach had finally taken a will of it's own as well as the urge to teach frat boy Alexander a new trick was some mischief I couldn't help but cause.  
  
I was inside ordering cinnamon buns and coffee when silence came over me seeing Alexander in his sunglasses and easy chair position with a cell phone in one hand. I dreaded not telling him my situation but for now that could not be helped as he approached the coffee shop, cell phone in hand.  
  
"It's your boyfriend," he said offering me the phone.  
  
I took the phone in easy fingers but said nothing. I was silent as the smooth voice settled down over the receiver.  
  
"Hello Del, how are you feeling?" he asked smoothly.  
  
"Theo," I growled.  
  
"Salvatore's concerned about his pupil gallivanting through the local bashes so I made a few phone calls, found Caryn and she said you were with Alex."  
  
"He knows about you, doesn't he," I drew a hand down my cheek.  
  
"Del, all you saw were contacts," he purred.  
  
"Sick bastard, he does know about you doesn't he. You've been using his magic to hide what you really are and he let you."  
  
"Clever Deliria, so now your goings to run and tell are you? Not a wise choice," cooed Theo.  
  
I was silent. There were no words for the contemptible beast Theo was.  
  
He replied with the same silence and suddenly a revolting crack came over the static. The scream that erupted over the line was a complete shock, piercing my eardrum as if someone had fired a gun next to my ear.  
  
The phone dropped from my fingertips in shock while goose bumps broke out over my skin.  
  
People turned their heads as I snatched up the phone in my shaking hands for what I knew was my entire fault.  
  
"Come out, come out, wherever you are Deliria, for now the hunter becomes the hunted," he chuckled at me and hung up. 


	4. Warmblooded Disease Part I

Author Notes: If you would like me to continue this story please review and to all those who have I am honored and adore you, also just a little something to think about, I'm most likely going to try and do Alex's point of view next chapter but I won't promise anything.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from in "In the Forest of the Night"  
  
MPOV  
  
I don't know how long I was standing there holding that phone to my ear with the droning beeps constantly going off to signal the connection had been severed.  
  
It was Alexander who gently pulled the phone from my ear and shut it closed. He was quiet and calmly waited for me to respond.  
  
"We, we, we," I stuttered.  
  
I was trying to think but that scream. I just couldn't form coherent sentences with that shriek going off in my mind over and over and over. I was trying to pull myself together but it just wouldn't leave me alone. It brought back all the screams I'd ever heard, all the screams I'd ever caused.  
  
I barely knew right from left. Up and down seemed to be the same direction as I stumbled over a street curb, movement seemed better than nothing at all. The loud honk from a 4x4 Dodge was a long and loud bawl as the tires screeched to a swerving stop.  
  
Alexander gripped my waist and wrenched me backward all in the same second, both hands wrapped so tightly it knocked the air right out of me. Screams erupted from neighboring people who had caught sight of an almost death and I covered my ears. I did it to no avail it just swirled with the multitude of them that worked like a foghorn.  
  
"Are you ok?" asked Alexander.  
  
I looked over those high cheekbones and into those eyes as if to beg for forgiveness for what I had provoked to the poor soul Theo had found. I was going to tell him everything then and now so he could disappear like everyone else. I just didn't want Alexander to be like everyone else. More than anything I wanted him to stay and that's exactly why I had to let him go. That was why I had to push everyone away until they disappeared forever. It was death that followed with me and life without, the choice was easy but it was the choice that left me bleeding for no one to see.  
  
Admitting this to myself was hard; admitting this to Alexander was near impossible. I know he couldn't hear my thoughts so I gazed until I'd get the heart to tell him. It was confession before I dealt with the person who showed themselves as the grim reaper to the few people who had stayed. And o how he'd pay, I wouldn't rest until he paid.  
  
My lips were set against any mention of this garbage, although determination was lassoed around my tongue. Alexander looked back at me through golden orbs and ran a hand over my jaw line. Gently tilting my head to the side he kissed me. The screams faded and I tingled all the way down to my ankles. My lips we ambushed and my tongue, well I dropped the lasso.  
  
Something clicked, my eyes shot up with the foreboding of who had made their dying outcries. I pushed him back in order to catch my breath but he didn't let go his arms still wrapped securely around me.  
  
"Caryn," the word fell out of my mouth, and the revelation hit me like a brick wall.  
  
"Caryn," I repeated his eyes so close to me the gold seemed to spark as I said it. "Caryn Smoke, that, that was Caryn," I tried to explain. "Theo, he said he found Caryn when he went looking for me, that was Caryn screaming," the repulsive crack reverberated through my bones.  
  
He pulled me up and off the pavement and straight into a back alley. His fist was like iron on my wrist as it pulled me along I felt like a boat being overturned by the current.  
  
Alexander shifted to Caryn's house, which for the life of me I couldn't understand why he hadn't offered to do just that before hand.  
  
Caryn's house smelled of sage and peppermint mixed with blood and the nauseating smell of coming death. Alexander seemed a bit disoriented as he steadied himself on my arm. I could guess why he hadn't offered to just shift before. Motion sickness seemed a bit odd for a witch born with that gift but I only had a second to think about it.  
  
Caryn was convulsing on the floor while two neat marks lay embedded in her throat her mouth was red with the blood only Theo could provide. She whimpered softly as she finally steadied and pulled into a protective ball.  
  
Alexander knelt beside her and brushed her hair out of her eyes but I just couldn't bring myself to do it because then I'd be lying. I'd be lying about what I'd have to do in the next few minutes. I didn't want to lye to the person who had saved my life and I could do nothing to save her own life. The only kindness I could do was to make her death as painless as possible.  
  
Alexander seemed new to the fact of killing our own kind. Experience I was more than willing to give up at any price. As I took the blade from my thigh he looked at me as if I had physically wounded him.  
  
Salvatore had once told me that self-obedience was harder when you really didn't agree with what had to be done. That you did what you had to in life because although both the vampire and Triste were similar the law of the jungle was the same: Be Strong or Be Killed. I remember this specifically after laying to rest my brothers.  
  
So I knelt before Caryn as she lay silent and serene, oblivious and out cold. I remained emotionless and numb to any and every feeling that decided it should make itself known before the knife came down. Except for the deep disgust I had for myself in being Caryn's murderess.  
  
"I'm going to severe her magic, and then snap her neck so she can't feel when the knife goes through," I was prepared for Alexander to full on tackle me.  
  
"What about the toxins we could try and destroy it?" he asked, stalling.  
  
"Theo made his ties into her long before he ever called. I can feel it from here," I shamefully confessed.  
  
"Then her magic, I can severe the line she could still live then," he argued.  
  
The suggestion startled me. Was he so brash into thinking of letting her become a leech? I didn't know whether to be appalled or touched. It was possible of course but he was damn near crazy if he thought I was going to bottle feed her the kill she'd need.  
  
"That's not an option," I replied calmly.  
  
"Why not?" he pleadingly argued.  
  
"What you're suggesting would mean we'd have to take the life of a mortal, a human being, so she could become one of them. We'd disown ourselves and dishonor Caryn." I told him gently.  
  
"What if one of them took Caryn, to feed." He seemed very bent on letting Caryn live.  
  
I swiftly dove into Caryn's mind and severed her magic between my fingertips and when I came back up for air I felt Alexander. Caryn's neck lay in my grasp. His fists tightened around both my wrists as I attempted to carry through with my plan.  
  
"You betray your line in making one of them out of an honorable witch, Alexander."  
  
I was trying to struggle as he shifted. Jabbing my elbows as hard as I could into his stomach I pushed forward with my palms but it was to late.  
  
He dropped me to the cold ground.  
  
"It's not about honor," he rasped and disappeared.  
  
"Alexander!" I yelled, "Damn it Alexander the counsel will skewer you when they find out about Caryn. Alexander, Alexander." I yelled beseeching for him to come back.  
  
I was alone now, how I'd been most of my immortal life but why it made me so completely angry now I couldn't fathom.  
  
He was really going to do it then, he was going to let her become a leech. Could I have underestimated the relationship of Alexander and Caryn, I didn't think that was it. Piecing together a motive for the betrayal he was committing just made me even worse as I began to lose control.  
  
Losing control was the last thing I wanted to do, because the consequences that followed were never good. That you be vampire, witch, or mortal, keeping control was the highest power you could achieve.  
  
I needed to settle down, just let it go, let it fall away, and disappear. So I sat back against the brick wall of an alien building just breathing, trying to turn away from the situation I should have turned over to the Witch Counsel, wherever that was.  
  
It thundered overhead and the clouds rolled out to drop the rain it had been coveting for quite some time now. It started as droplets just here and there and then by the bucketfuls it poured.  
  
They ran together over my cheeks, the clear water of the rain and the salty warmth of my tears. It had finally happened, despite both the warning of Salvatore and my own constant scolding of myself through all these years of immortality it came.  
  
That warm-blooded disease had snuck in and spread like cancer through my whole body. I was hopelessly in love with Alexander, traitor to the Triste line and friend to the vampire, Caryn. 


	5. Warmblooded Disease Part II

Authors Notes: Not to long before the big finish or the new beginning. That's what made me take awhile on this because ending it, is well ending it. Don't worry still a few chapters left. Won't be long now.  
  
My thanks goes out to all my reviewers on my first fic, you guys are really great!  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes characters  
  
Caryn was a kind person with a good heart she didn't deserve the punishment the Witch Council defined as "honor." Nothing was further from honor and so much closer to murder.  
  
Somehow he knew Miranda felt the same about it but she was raised on the Witch Council and Salvatore was more than a strict teacher, he was the best there was and perhaps Miranda could be to provided she throw away her conscious.  
  
He hadn't meant to strand Miranda in some place he didn't even know but the shock of her elbow driven so hard she might have cracked a rib had surprised him and he lost concentration not to mention his grip on her during the shift. But there was no way she was going to listen and Caryn deserved better than a grave marker for doing nothing wrong.  
  
He had accidentally read her thoughts and for someone who played to be so cold and distant they were the thoughts of a person passionate and oddly enough about him. He couldn't help but kiss those lips aimed to tell him off when she wanted him all the more closer. He tried to push that moment away long enough to concentrate on a plan for Caryn.  
  
He thought of the vampires that would even consider taking Caryn at all. The first was Risika and depending on their old roots perhaps he could get her to command a weaker vampire to take Caryn. The second was Jessica Allodola now Jessica Shadow, traitor to all witches, originally Aubrey's fledgling and now her own line.  
  
Laying eyes on her without attacking could get him disowned. The Vida line made very sure of that. She seemed the best gamble though, because Risika was known for being reckless and unpredictable with her prey and he knew of no fledgling she had ever created. Jessica had debt to be repaid to Caryn and what better time than now.  
  
Taking Caryn gently in his arms while keeping her hungry mouth away from his throat he shifted to New Mayhem. Recalling this place was easy having tracked Risika here not long ago. The only flaw he found in this plan was that Aubrey was likely to be with Jessica and he had yet to avenge his own scar. Not a niche imbetween the shoulder and the collarbone as Risika had but a laceration across his throat white and bone pale compared to his tan skin.  
  
Focus, he thought grimly and opened the door to Las Noches.  
  
The door swung open easily enough and the red strobe light flickered off the spider-webbed glass on the walls from Risika's and Aubrey's last fight.  
  
Jessica was sitting on the bar dangling her legs as she downed the contents of a bottle. She stopped and eyed Caryn.  
  
Leaping from the counter she approached a look of contempt flashing in her eyes yet a reserved tenderness for the body that was Caryn.  
  
"You have a debt to be paid," he barked seeing Aubrey skulk forward as well.  
  
She crossed her arms to her chest and smirked as Aubrey wrapped a possessive hand around Jessica's waist.  
  
"And you'll let me take her will you Alexander, such the moral hero aren't you. What will the council think when they here of your selfless deed. I think they'd disown you first and then go after her immortal sire. "  
  
"I have yet to lay rest to yours," he answered fiercely.  
  
"Is that a challenge?" Aubrey asked dangerously.  
  
"For another time," Jessica interrupted taking Caryn's limp body in her hands with a mind to break up the conversation. She sniffed at the blood Caryn had fresh on the side of her mouth. "Theo," she said knowingly, "I suppose Miranda fell across Caryn by accident then didn't she."  
  
Aubrey smirked at the surprise that Alexander had accidentally let slip across his face.  
  
"I don't thank Tristes Alexander, although my advice to you is this, after you leave here do not return to your lady love or Theo will boil your head in hot oil and serve it to Miranda with saltines." She smiled again and swept past with a smirk.  
  
He ignored her and went to so exactly that.  
  
Miranda was nowhere to be found not an aura not a loose shoe to tell she had ever been. He had no doubt she was real and he could still taste her on his lips. He had to find her. The problem was he didn't know where to look first.  
  
He would have shifted had he not been afraid he'd black out during the shift and end up senseless on enemy territory. He drove long past daylight and only stopped for gas and what he could grab on the way out. The drive wasn't hard and he was used to sleep not coming easy to him. Until finally a person he hadn't seen in a long time greeted him upon his destination to the Vida household.  
  
Adianna was getting out of her car as he pulled in the driveway.  
  
"Alex," she sounded worried, "what's wrong."  
  
"Hey," he said ignoring her worry and getting out of his car, "have you heard any news lately Adianna."  
  
"Come in," she opened the door to the house, "before you fall asleep on the porch. Mom's off and about for a meeting with the Witch Council."  
  
He stopped her right in the doorway. "Adianna this can't wait, I need to know if anything's changed, you'd be the first to know, that's why I came here."  
  
"Alex are you in trouble," she asked her brow creased with worry once again.  
  
"Adianna," he warned there was danger in his voice though he hadn't meant it to be there.  
  
She paused watching him wearily and started again with a sigh, "They're having a meeting above SingleEarth about the Triste turned vampire who's been murdering countless of your line. Mother says it's a shame one of the best had that happen to them."  
  
"Happen?"  
  
"Some dumb leech turning a Triste, just to die from the blood." She answered.  
  
"Don't you think it's weird a line of Anther's would go after a Triste, and one of the best at that, to change him after he put up a fight."  
  
"Who said he was one of Anther's?" she asked.  
  
"I saw him shift the night I found Miranda. Miranda must've finally told the Council about Theo yesterday. She knows more about this than anyone. She's one of Salvatores students do you think he would know where she went?"  
  
"Miranda? Alex, that girl's been missing a month since yesterday, they're beginning to find bodies and between you and me she's on the list."  
  
"No!" he roared his fist rammed into the doorframe , and the porch lamp shattered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to it's just, it's impossible because I saw her not 24 hours ago." He was exasperated as he helped Adianna pick up the razor sharp pieces.  
  
"I have a coroners list with name, time of death, and picture that can tell you how big a lie that is."  
  
"What are you suggesting?"  
  
"Could it be possible Miranda's ghost may have somehow tried to avenge her death, The may have ran her through and forgot to twist the blade and destroy the power central, her spirit could be using it's energy to keep the body alive until she can take retribution for her murder."  
  
"Then her body wouldn't be at the morgue, Adianna."  
  
"Her body went missing Alex, how does a body get out of a locked freezer without somehow being alive."  
  
"She is alive, she never went anywhere," he persisted  
  
"If she's using her life energy to stay corporeal that power is going to burn down and when it does her soul will be as empty as her body," her words cut into him. "Alex by the gods," she pleaded, "she's not going to know she's dead, and better that then the nothing she'll become."  
  
Adianna stopped and looked at Alexander his head bent away from her, his eyes squeezed tightly shut to block the truth in her words.  
  
"I can't lose her, Adianna, she's, she's..."  
  
"Otherworldly," she tried.  
  
"Yes, but not in that way," he growled.  
  
"Alex if you love her, you have to finish this." She pleaded  
  
There was that line again the one dividing right from wrong the one that drew the difference from black to white. There was never a between, or shade of gray, that's just how it was in the life of the righteous, the life of a witch. The greater good was no longer purely white but smeared with the blood of those sacrificed and he stood withholding the ax.  
  
"I have to kill her then that's what you're saying, like some leech I have to twist the blade through her heart. And in turn betray my own."  
  
Adianna nodded her head and brushed the glass from his palms to hers.  
  
A/N- And in turn betray his own he means betray his own heart if there was any confusion there I apologize now. Also I am going to try and have the next chapter out by tomorrow night so my super human typist powers can have a good workout. (Truthfully, I'll be gone on vacation this Saturday for a week) 


End file.
